Some Upper Delaware River Cities

by Louise Smith Posted on October 23, 2009

Cochecton
In 1754, Connecticut Yankees established Cushetunk and claimed the Delaware River’s west bank for the Colony of Connecticut.

Cochecton, (cuh-SHEK-ton), means low land; also called the flats. The land is rich and fertile and full of fish and game.

Narrowsburg
Narrowsburg has the narrowest and deepest points on the upper Delaware River.

Tusten (Ten Mile River)
Tusten at the mouth of the Ten Mile River, was first called the Ten Mile River Settlement, and grew up around 1751. Tusten was named for the Revolutionary hero, Dr. Tusten.

Ten Mile River is the site of a large summer camp maintained by the Boy Scouts of America.

Shehola, Shohola
Shohola/Shehola is Lenape for “slow waters where the geese rest.” Shohola the town in Pennsylvania, is on the Shohola River, and directly across from Barryville, NY.

Barryville was called, “the River”, until 1831, though according to my information, it continued to be called the River for some time.

Mongaup
Mongaup is a small, quiet hamlet at the mouth of the Mongaup River, which is still the eastern border of Lumberland.

Sparrowbush
Sparrowbush was named for H.L. Sparrow, a dealer in ship-knee timber, who rafted down the Delaware River in the early 1800s.

The land was originally named Sparrow’s Bosh. Bosh was a sloping thicket or woods.

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River Rafting

by Louise Smith Posted on October 22, 2009

In 1800, Lumberland (then two years old), had a population of 733, most of whom had lumber-related jobs. Saw-mills operated on various streams. Halfway Brook was said to have had ten sawmills on its nine miles.

Enormous amounts of lumber were made into rafts and floated down one of the many rivers or brooks in the area that fed into the Delaware River. The Delaware River flowed to Carpenter’s Point (Port Jervis) and on south to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the lumber could be sold.

It was around 1764, the year after the French and Indian War, when Daniel Skinner made a 15 foot by 80 foot raft from six felled pine trees. Daniel ingeniously lashed these logs (masts for boats), together, added a rudder,
and floated the raft down the river—Timber Rafting it was called.

Leaving Cushetunk/Cochecton where he lived, Daniel and two others (one drowned) rafted about 200 miles down the Delaware River, past the settlements at Narrowsburgh, Ten Mile River, Shohola and the River, Pond Eddy, Mongaup, and Carpenter’s Point, and headed southeast to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where Mr. Skinner was paid twenty-four pounds—four pounds per mast.

For further reading:
Skinner’s Falls/Milanville Bridge

Rafting on the Delaware (scroll down)

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Halfway Brook Village and Brook

by Louise Smith Posted on October 20, 2009

The Halfway Brook (there is another one in New York) I write about, is in a most gorgeous area called the Upper Delaware River Region, in New York State. This Halfway Brook was the name of a nine-mile stream, before it became the name of the Village which is now Eldred.

Halfway Brook flowed through an ocean of large old magnificent trees in the town appropriately named Lumberland, in late 1815, when my great-great-grandfather James Eldred and his family settled in the area.

There were several nearby settlements in the area when the Eldred family arrived. At the mouth of Halfway Brook on the Delaware River was The River settlement, which became Barryville.

Northwest of The River, also on the Delaware River, was the Ten Mile River Settlement (later Tusten) on the Ten Mile River. And to the southeast of the River was/is Mongaup on the, guess the name—Mongaup River.

The mouth of Halfway Brook is halfway between the Ten Mile River and the Mongaup Settlements, hence the name. Or that is what I read.

I also read that what became the location of Halfway Brook Village was at one time midway on an ancient path that went from the Mongaup Settlement to the Ten Mile Settlement. Halfway Brook Village grew up about four miles north of “The River”, and slightly to the east, near the middle of Halfway Brook.

That is where James and Polly Eldred, their five children—Amelia, Sarah, Eliza, Abraham Mulford, and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney Eldred, and possibly Mary Hulse Eldred Forgeson (mother of James—hence my 3G-grandmother [no not an iphone]—settled a couple days before the end of the year 1815—according to the family story.

The Mill on Halfway Brook follows the lives of the Eldred family (Polly Eldred died, and James then marries Hannah Hickok, who was my 2G grandmother), their neighbors, and my relatives as they move into the Village, Town of Lumberland, which later became Eldred in the town of Highland.

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Hemlock Trees

by Louise Smith Posted on October 19, 2009

The bark of the hemlock tree was used in the many tanneries of the area in the nineteenth century. Tannin found in Hemlock bark stops the natural decay and makes the leather flexible and durable, preserving the hide.

Hemlock bark was removed from trees, stacked and dried, and then ground into powder for use in the tanning process.

Animal hides were repeatedly soaked in the bark from the Hemlock tree (or Chestnut Oak), and mixed with other ingredients. An acidic chemical reaction slowly changed the hide into leather.

Millions of hemlock trees, after the bark was removed for the tanneries, were left to decay.—http://www.minisink.org/hisdoor.html

When I was a boy, I could walk to town and never touch the ground by hopping from hemlock tree to hemlock tree that were laying on the ground.
—Garfield Leavenworth, born 1882

The hemlock trees were cut down for the bark, which was peeled and used in the leather tanning process. There was a tanning mill in Sparrowbush. In fact, they recently put up a marker sign where the mill was on route 97.
—Kevin Marrinan

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Did you know?

by Louise Smith Posted on October 16, 2009

Kill
Kill or kille is Dutch for a creek as in Wallkill or Beaver Kill.

Callicoon Creek
Dutch hunters named the area Kollikoonkill because there were so many Kollikoon or wild turkeys.

Delaware
In 1610, as Captain Samuel Argall named both the Lenape River, and the people living on its banks, the Delaware in honor of Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, his patron, a British nobleman and Virginia’s first colonial governor.

The Largest Raft
A Mr. Barnes took a 85 feet wide, 215 feet long raft, loaded with 120,000 feet of lumber down the Delaware River.—minisink.org

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Final, Final Edit October 14, 2009

by Louise Smith Posted on October 14, 2009

Dear Cousins and Friends,

I am happy to announce that The Mill on Halfway Brook is ready for its final edit. This means my husband Gary, who designs book covers and book interiors for clients (as well as a number of other design related projects), will now take over the process and make the book print ready, and create a cover.

I don’t know how long that will take. You might recall, he is still renovating our house. The kitchen is now only missing a countertop, but there is still a pantry to tile, cabinets to put up in the half bath and a floor to be raised 9 inches or so in the living room.

Ever your cousin,
Louise

Gary’s sites
Performance Design
Dean’s Garage automobile design, history, racing, and nostalgia

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Eel Weirs

by Louise Smith Posted on October 4, 2009

Fish and eel were plentiful in the Delaware River. The Van Tuyl, Middaugh, Hooker families and others kept a barrel of salted eels for winter meals. Each child’s dinner would be a boiled eel and four buckwheat pancakes. Other families in the area spread rye bread with butter or grease from pork for their dinner.
—from Johnston, Reminiscences

I was quite interested to know that 180 years or so later, eels are still trapped in eel weirs near Pond Eddy, on the Delaware.

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Whortleberrying by Hagan Pond 1850s

by Louise Smith Posted on September 28, 2009

Today, while working on chapter 7 for at least the 4th time, I read the answer to my question regarding if there were cranberries by Highland Lake in the 1850s.

In 1850, Highland Lake was called Hagan Pond. What follows is a letter from George W. Eldred, to Stephen St. John Gardner.

Both young men are a part of the story I am writing, and both are grandsons of James Eldred who arrived with his wife Polly Mulford and five children, including CCP Eldred (George W.’s father) and Eliza Eldred Gardner (Stephen’s mother), in what became Halfway Brook Village at the end of 1815.

I saw several definitions of whortleberry. I went with the definition that included mountain cranberry and lowbush cranberry.

I learned that Cranberries are low, creeping shrubs or vines…with slender, wiry stems that are not thickly woody and have small evergreen leaves. The flowers are dark pink…The fruit is initially white, but turns a deep red when fully ripe. It is edible, with an acidic taste that can overwhelm its sweetness.

George W. Eldred, Halfway Brook Village, 1850ish
To: Cousin Stephen St. John Gardner, U.of NE Pennsylvania, Bethany, PA

A friend and I went to Hagan whortleberrying yesterday. Got half a bushel, and no mistake. We got nicely [out] of the marsh, when it began to rain right along. We had the misfortune to spill about a peck of our berries and did not get more than half of them.

I know of nothing else to write only Oliver Calkins was here today and Oh! what a nice shower we had. He stopped and bunked in with us till most 6, when he gave out, and put for home, thinking it never would quit raining.

Grandfather [James Eldred] is well as common today, so are all the rest, except Palmer who had an attack of cholera morbus last even, but is coming up again.
—Eldred, Richard O. The Eldred Family, p. 73

March 23/2010 Update: There are both blueberries and cranberries in the area.

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Arrival in Halfway Brook

by Louise Smith Posted on September 26, 2009

Since the story of my Austin/Leavenworth ancestors, took place in the same location for almost 140 years, I began searching to find out the arrival of each family. The following timeline (give or take a couple years in some instances) seems to be correct.

Note: If you are wondering about your ancestors and they were in the area by 1855, check the New York State Census for that year. Halfway Brook Village was in the town of Highland by 1855, so that was where I found quite a bit of info.

1811
Asa and Esther Hinman Hickok and family, including Hannah Hickok, who would be the second wife of James Eldred, as Polly died young. Hannah was my great great grandmother.

1815
James and Polly Mulford Eldred and five children and probably James’s mother (my triple great grandmother) Mary Hulse Eldred Forgeson.

1834
Sherman Buckley and Charlotte Ingram Leavenworth (possibly earlier). This is a longer story that you can read about in the book.

1839
Ralph and Fanny Knapp Austin and my great grandfather, William Henry.

1852
Martin D. and Jane Ann Van Pelt Myers. Possibly my great great great grandmother, Elizabeth Lazerlier Van Pelt.

Continue reading →

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Cranberries by Highland Lake?

by Louise Smith Posted on September 24, 2009

One of the reasons I wanted to start this blog was to share the excitement of new information that I get—often via my ace information gathering specialist, Cousin Cynthia.

Cynthia’s recent photo and information find came from a gracious couple, Mr. and Mrs. R.

Mrs. R remembers cranberries growing in the swampy part of land under the “thumb” of Highland Lake, as well as all along Highland Lake. I think it was in the 1930s or 1940s that Mrs. R. said they would pick the cranberries while they were green and lay them out in big pans from the boarding house and by Thanksgiving they would be red and ripe and they would make their own cranberry sauce.

My question is, does anyone know if in the mid-1800s there were cranberry bogs in the area by what was then Hagan Pond?

I hope someone reading this knows. I checked Quinlan and Child, but did not find any reference to cranberries.

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